Posts Categorized: Blog

We were recently asked to turn our original watercolor illustration into black and white vectors for the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s graphics department. While it can seem like a simple request, making sure they have options for every graphic design projects is a big undertaking.

I just got some good news over the weekend, and when I updating my calendar, I realized I have quite a packed couple of months.

Women in Film and Media — March 28th
I’m a panelist for this one, and I get to share the stage with thirteen other awesome women that make video and movies in the state of Rhode Island. It’s a half day event, so it fits in nicely with a hectic schedule. womeninfilmandmedia.com

Life After Taxes — April 15th
This is something I started three year’s ago for RISD alumni. It’s just a way to get business owners and new alumni out of their studios and offices. This year we get to host it at Faust. So, if you’re a RISD alumni, come out and get a beer on April 15th!

Lady Project Summit — April 18th
This is our second year getting to film this awesome event. It takes place at the Vets Auditorium this time and I’m stoked to film in such a beautiful venue, and support a great local organization. www.ladyprojectsummit.com

Bones Bailey Goes to Festival — April 21st
We got excepted to the South Eastern New England Film Festival. We’ll be screening as part of their music block at the Brookklyn Coffee and Tea House. www.senefest.com

SEEED Conference — Weekend of April 24-25th
I was asked to speak on a panel on storytelling. Not sure where it is in this week, but the whole conference should be awesome and you should plan to attend! http://seeed.org

Family in town — April
As if three conferences and a film premiere weren’t enough, I’ll have family in town for a couple weeks. At least they’ll get to see some of the awesome stuff I do!

Today is the day Leonard Nimoy passed away. He made looking weird and being odd cool for countless people.

One of my favorite photos of Spock has been him with the black cat. Partially because I also have a black kitty, but also for the absurdity of the expressions on both man and cat.

My homage to such a wonderful, interesting person:

Here’s the full quote from the title: “I think about myself as like an ocean liner that’s been going full speed for a long distance, and the captain pulls the throttle back all the way to ‘stop,’ but the ship doesn’t stop immediately, does it? It has its own momentum and it keeps on going, and I’m very flattered that people are still finding me useful.”

Since Volkswagen stepped out of the game this year, I can’t write a Super Bowl wrap-up about their campaigns. Instead, I’ll focus on the big standout at the Super Bowl: Always’ “Like a Girl” ad. It was the big, flashy culmination of a year-long campaign. If you somehow haven’t seen it, go watch it, now.

This ad is having a big moment. It was called “groundbreaking” by The Huffington Post, and one of the “Top 5 Moments for Women” by Makers. But it misses the mark on both the feminist side and on marketing to their target audience.

As Elissa Stein pointed out, “I thought they did a great job, but it has zero to do with menstruation.” Making an ad that creates emotions in your audience is great, but it needs to link back to your audience to be effective. Emotional depth without a concrete message makes your brand forgettable.

The ad had a great idea, buried ninety seconds deep in the spot: “A Girl’s Confidence Plummets During Puberty.” Always says they want to change that…but how? By selling their product? Is there a charitable side of this campaign? It’s a crucial fact, but it isn’t connected to the rest of the campaign.

The common phrase is “like a girl”, but using the word “girl” and not “woman” undercuts the seriousness of their message. The other side of this coin is the common phrase is “like a man,” as in “fight like a man” or “think like a man.” The theme still casts women as children and men as adults.

There are much, much better ads that already talk about menstruation, body image/functions, and or puberty without resorting to schmaltzie, empty platitudes. Hello Flo, Poo Pourri, Dear Kate, and U by Kotex all take frank looks at unpleasant bodily functions with a fun, feminine twist.

The thing that irks me the most is that this ad is still clearly sexist. The concept argues that categories where men succeed are the crucial measures of success: the ad argues that women’s athletic abilities are just as valid as men’s, but in a way that states that male-dominated fields are still the most important categories we measure.

Imagine an ad campaign championing women roles for men:

Clean like a man.

Smell like a teenager.

Dress like a boy.

Cook like a guy.

This ad doesn’t make any sense. Empowerment is wonderful, but we need to empower people to do their own, wonderful thing–not just prove they’re just as good as someone else.

If you run a business, you’ll have to make a slide deck at some point. While a good deck is only 5-20 slides, it’s good to work out your branding ahead of time. This will allow you to quickly deliver timely presentations for a variety of clients. We created this slide deck template to include options for: title cards, table of contents, five/ten point lists with icons, two/four/five box layouts with icons, pop outs or pull quotes, vertical and horizontal bar graphs in both left and right orientations, medium size picture options, large pictures options with a variety of centered text, infographic with radiating text boxes, and two options for end cards with a call to action.

In trying to research such templates, there weren’t a lot of guides. So, we created a template for others to learn from! This was made with Google Slides to make it easier to share with multiple creators, regardless of distance or availability of design software.